Lancer
Lancer is a nefarious Darkner kid and minor antagonist in Chapter 1 of Deltarune. While his initial goal is to destroy the protagonists before they can reach the Eastern Fountain and seal it, he eventually joins the team and becomes a tritagonist. Profile Appearance Lancer wears a dark blue hood which usually shields his eyes, making the shape of a spade on his face. His tunic has a blue spade-shaped emblem on the front, and his tongue, in the same shade of blue, often hangs out of his mouth. Like his father, he has white skin and a round body. According to Kris, it is difficult to tell Lancer's body from his clothes. Personality Lancer is very childish, immature in his behavior and speech, assuming that the party will follow the instructions on the signs he writes, and getting lost in mazes quite easily. He values his father, trying to project a tough facade in imitation of him, hoping to be designated "son of the month," and caring for his father's well-being and approval despite being neglected. Aware that his father's subjects don't like him and only put up with him due to King's orders, he seeks real friendship and gradually becomes an ally to the party despite his initial show of hostility. Attacks ; First Battle * Lancer moves up and down on the right side of the Bullet Board. After a bit, he will honk and do a wheelie, charging forward. * Lancer charges across the bottom of the Bullet Board, then returns from above the Bullet Board, shooting spade shaped projectiles at Kris's SOUL. ; Second Battle * Susie jumps on top of Lancer. Then, Lancer jumps over the top of the Bullet Board while Susie launches axe projectiles that travel towards the right of the Bullet Board. * Summons spade projectiles at random locations at the top of the screen which travel downward through the Bullet Board. * If Susie is put to sleep, Lancer uses the attacks from the first encounter. ; Third Battle * Summons spade projectiles at random locations at the top of the screen which travel downward through the Bullet Board. * Summons spade projectiles from the sides of the Bullet Board. * If Susie is low on health or after three turns have passed, he will launch spade projectiles from the top of the screen that actively avoid the SOUL. This attack gradually decreases in intensity until the end of the fight. Main Story Chapter 1 Lancer first appeared as a dark silhouette, glimpsed a few times as Kris journeyed through the ?????? area. After Kris reunites with Susie, Lancer attacks them both, causing spades to be flung at them until they escape. Lancer properly reveals himself by ramming his bike into a hooded figure who has just introduced The Prophecy to the party. A brief battle ensues, in which Kris and Susie can either attack him, knocking him off-screen if his HP reaches 0, or prolong the battle so that his bike "runs out of fuel" and he leaves to get home before dinner. Once you get far enough into the Chapter, (about 1/5 of the way) Susie scares him but he takes it as friendly criticism, and thinks of her as a role model. About 1/4 of the way into the game he says he'll smash you into blood and asks Susie if it was scary, which makes her like him a little more. Once you get 1/3 of the way in Susie gets angry at Ralsei for trying to make her stop fighting enemies, and joins Lancer's side. After a few encounters with him and Kris, the party wins a fight against both Susie and Lancer. Susie joins the main party, and Lancer will also "join the party" (but in reality watch you from afar). In fear of the Heroes killing his father, or his father killing the Heroes, he runs away from the main party and then has them thrown in the Dungeon for their own safety, which he claims is "Far better than death." If the party has never defeated a Darkner through FIGHTing, Lancer saves them by overthrowing King after King's betrayal. He storms in with a large number of Darkner troops, and locks King in the Prison Cell in Card Castle. He then becomes the new King of the Dark World, leaving the other three Kings still locked away. Relationships Susie Lancer was originally indifferent about Susie, but after she scares him, he begins to look up to her. Later on in the story, both of them become part of the same team, sharing evil plans in order to "stop the main party." They finally come to be great friends. Ralsei Throughout Chapter 1, Lancer continuously compliments and seems to enjoy and care about Ralsei. Even when he's trying to be "the bad guy", he calls Ralsei things such as "nice boy", "toothpaste boy", and "main man". He even goes so far as to call theirs a "thrash-based relationship", and asks Kris and Susie to say goodbye to him as they leave the Dark World. (Not because he was leaving, simply because "he's just a sweet peach.") This could be seen as him having a crush on Ralsei, but that's more or less up to interpretation. Rouxls Kaard Lancer considers Rouxls his "lesser dad". He is often looked after and fed by Rouxls, who acts as his caretaker due to his father's indifference. Lancer will ask Rouxls to listen to his MP3 player often, which the latter dislikes due to all Lancer's songs being cartoon splat noises. Nevertheless, Rouxls cares about Lancer's wellbeing, despite pretending not to. King King is Lancer's father. Lancer looks up to him, and wants to be just like him one day. Despite this, they do not have a close relationship, as King does not seem to spend much time with his son and often does not feed him. Lancer both fears and respects his father. Gallery Lancer face joining.png | Lancer's face upon joining the team Trivia * True to the symbols in his design, Lancer is associated with the suit of Spades. When CHECKed during the first fight against the party, the flavor text says, "Not to call a spade a spade, but he's a spade." Along with a spade-shaped bed, Lancer has a spade in his room. ** At one point, he calls himself "Dark Jack Lancer," suggesting that, relative to King, he represents the Jack of Spades. *** This is further reflected by the fact that his design greatly resembles the Jack of Spades design by kanotynes, whose card set designs were used for multiple characters.kanotynes, Tumblr (March 27, 2012) ** In French, the suit of Spades is known as Pique which means "lance" or "pike" in English. * During the protagonist's first fight with Lancer, Kris can warn Lancer of Susie's upcoming attack, or choose to compliment him. However, complimenting him does not make him spareable. ** Kris's first compliment lowers Lancer's attack power. ** Their second compliment is seen as insincere and raises Lancer's attack power. ** The third compliment confuses Lancer, who, uncertain of its sincerity, attacks sideways, having no apparent effect. *** After this, whenever Kris gets hit, the damage counter will appear sideways. ** The fourth time, Lancer absorbs Kris's words into his skin, also having no apparent effect. * Lancer's sprite appears to be less detailed than the other characters, and does not have a walking animation. * Lancer labelled his team name raffle paper "Lancer", which he quickly changes to "The Lancer Fan Club" to avoid confusion. * Lancer has to take a shower each time he says a "bad word," as commanded by his father. * Lancer seems to have strange and unusual eating habits. Rouxls Kaard claims that whenever King forgets to feed his son, Lancer cries like a baby bird until Kaard feeds him worms. ** Lancer has not eaten a Dark Candy before being given one by Susie, because his father did not let him. ** When Ralsei points out Lancer's enemy team composition is similar to drinking only three glasses of milk for dinner, Lancer does not find it at all unusual to do so. ** He has a honeypot full of salsa that he only pretends to eat hidden in a tree stump; when asked, he does not know what it's made of. More salsa is stored in a hole he dug in his room. * He is not yet old enough to ride a motorcycle. ** Instead, Lancer rides a bike on fire, which appears to have training wheels. ** Lancer's bike can also absorb the Pacify spell. When Ralsei casts the Pacify spell during the fight with Susie and Lancer while Susie is asleep, Lancer's bike will absorb the spell. Then his bike will "get tired?????". * Lancer (along with Rudinn, Hathy, Clover, King, Jevil and the uncredited King of Diamonds) were designed by kanotynes.Original Character Designs - Credits ** With the exception of Jevil, all of kanotynes's characters were fully designed by March 2012 - 6 years prior to the release of Deltarune.kanotynes, Tumblr (March 27, 2012) *** According to kanotynes, the characters were originally created for her design class, having volunteered to draw 52 unique playing card designs."The reason I made them in the first place was for my design class though." - kanotynes, Tumblr (March 29, 2012) *** Lancer's earliest design was first posted on Tumblr on March 15, 2012 as a character on a jack of spades playing card.kanotynes, Tumblr (March 15, 2012) ** Toby Fox has attributed kanotynes's art as partially being the inspiration for Deltarune, having seen her designs on Tumblr in 2012 and wanting to make a game featuring them.Toby Fox, Twitter (November 02, 2018) ** When asked what Lancer was, they weren't sure but suggested that he was a Kewpie doll.kanotynes, Twitter (November 06, 2018) References pl:Lancer ru:Лансер